Jemima Goldsmith | |
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Born | Jemima Marcelle Goldsmith 30 January 1974 |
Citizenship | British, Pakistani [1] |
Alma mater | |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1998–present |
Spouse | |
Children | 2 |
Parents |
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Family |
Jemima Marcelle Goldsmith (born 30 January 1974), known professionally by her former married name Jemima Khan, is an English journalist and screenwriter. [2] She is the founder of Instinct Productions, a television production company. [3] As a journalist, she was an associate editor for the British political and cultural magazine The New Statesman and European editor-at-large for the American magazine Vanity Fair . [4] [5]
Born at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, Goldsmith is the eldest child of Lady Annabel Goldsmith and financier Sir James Goldsmith (1933–1997). Her mother, from an aristocratic Anglo−Irish family, is the daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry. Goldsmith's father was the son of a luxury hotel tycoon and former Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), Major Frank Goldsmith, who was a member of the Goldsmith family of German Jewish descent. [6] Her paternal grandmother was French.
Goldsmith's parents were married to different partners at the time of her birth, but they married each other in 1978 in order to legitimise their children. [7] She has two younger brothers, Zac Goldsmith and Ben Goldsmith, and five paternal and three maternal half-siblings, including Robin Birley and India Jane Birley. [8]
Goldsmith grew up at Ormeley Lodge and attended The Old Vicarage preparatory school, then Francis Holland Girls School. In 1993, Goldsmith enrolled at the University of Bristol and studied English, but she dropped out when she married Imran Khan in 1995. She eventually completed her bachelor's degree in March 2002 with upper second-class honours. [9] [10] She later studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies and was awarded a master of arts degree in Middle Eastern Studies, focusing on Modern Trends in Islam, [11] from the University of London in 2003. [12]
In 2015, Goldsmith founded Instinct Productions, specializing in television, documentaries and film production, based in London. [3]
Through Instinct Productions, Goldsmith was an executive producer for the Emmy-nominated six-part documentary series The Clinton Affair, alongside Alex Gibney and director Blair Foster, for the A&E Network. [13] [14]
She was an executive producer of Emmy-nominated The Case Against Adnan Syed , a TV documentary series for Sky Atlantic and HBO about the Adnan Syed case. The series inspired the 'Serial' podcast, directed by Amy Berg ("Deliver Us from Evil"). [15] [16]
She was a producer on the Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated Impeachment , Ryan Patrick Murphy's FX American Crime Story Season Three, a 10-part drama series about the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal. [17]
Goldsmith wrote and produced What's Love Got to Do with It? , a cross-cultural romantic comedy for Working Title Films and Studio Canal, starring Lily James and Emma Thompson which premiered at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival and won Best Comedy at the 2022 Rome Film Festival. It was nominated for nine awards at the 2023 National Film Awards, of which it won four: Best Screenplay, Best British Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor. [18]
Goldsmith executive produced Tanaz Eshaghian’s Emmy-nominated As Far As They Can Run, a documentary short about children with intellectual disabilities in rural Pakistan.
She was an executive producer for the BAFTA-nominated documentary film We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks by Alex Gibney, released in 2013. [19] She was also the co-executive producer for the documentary films Unmanned: America's Drone Wars (released in 2013) [20] and Making A Killing: Guns, Greed and the NRA (released in 2016), both directed by Robert Greenwald.
Goldsmith is also an executive producer of a TV drama series about the Rothschild banking dynasty, written by Julian Fellowes. [21]
She co-produced the play Drones, Baby, Drones at the Arcola Theatre, directed by Nicolas Kent and Mehmet Ergen, that premiered in November 2016. [22]
She was a contributor[ clarification needed ] to the fifth season of the historical drama series The Crown , which depicted the final years of Diana, Princess of Wales. She asked for her contributions to be removed as she felt the "storyline would not necessarily be told as respectfully or compassionately" as she had hoped. [23]
In 2024, Goldsmith also produced a hit podcast called A Muslim & A Jew Go There presented by politician Sayeeda Warsi and David Baddiel. It was described in the Evening standard as “an antidote to the tribalism online” [24] and by The Guardian as “civilised and civilizing”. [25] The podcast reached no 2 in the Apple charts and was nominated for two awards by The British Podcast Awards - for Best New Podcast and News & Current Affairs.
Although Goldsmith had written articles when she lived in Pakistan, [1] she started contributing op-eds to the United Kingdom's newspapers and magazines including The Independent , The Sunday Times , The Evening Standard and The Observer . [26] [27] [28] [29] In 2008, she was granted an exclusive interview with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on the eve of the elections for The Independent. [30] She was a Sunday Telegraph columnist from 21 October 2007 to 27 January 2008. [31]
She was a feature writer and a contributing editor for British Vogue from 2008 to 2011. In 2011, she was appointed Vanity Fair's new European editor-at-large. [32] She was also associate editor at The Independent. [33]
In April 2011, she guest-edited the New Statesman and themed the issue around freedom of speech. She interviewed the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and included contributions from Russell Brand, Tim Robbins, Simon Pegg, Oliver Stone, Tony Benn, and Julian Assange, with cover art by Anish Kapoor and Damien Hirst. [34] According to Nick Cohen in The Observer, "Jemima Khan was by a country mile the best editor of the New Statesman that the journal has had since the mid-1970s". [35] The magazine issue included "an unexpected scoop" from Hugh Grant who went undercover to hack Paul McMullan, a former News of the World journalist, who had been involved in hacking as a reporter. [36] In November 2011, she joined as an associate editor of the New Statesman. [37]
In 1998, Goldsmith launched an eponymous fashion label that employed poor Pakistani women to embroider western clothes with eastern handiwork [38] to be sold in London and New York. [39] Profits were donated to her then husband's Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital. She ran the organisation until December 2001, when she shut down the business due to the economic situation following the September 11 attacks, and so she could focus on fundraising and on supporting her husband in Pakistani politics. [1] [39]
In 2008, she modelled the relaunched Azzaro Couture fragrance and was a guest co-designer of a Spring 2009 collection for Azzaro, with her fee reportedly donated to UNICEF. [40] [41]
As voted by Daily Telegraph readers, she won the Rover People's Award for the best dressed female celebrity at the 2001 British Fashion Awards. [42] She was also featured on Vanity Fair 's Annual International Best-Dressed List in 2004, 2005 and 2007, [43] the last of which she was inducted into their Best Dressed Hall of Fame. [44]
During her marriage, Goldsmith established the Jemima [45] Khan Afghan Refugee Appeal to provide tents, clothing, food, and healthcare for Afghan refugees at Jalozai camp in Peshawar. [1] [46] [47]
She became an Ambassador for UNICEF UK in 2001, and made field trips to Kenya, Romania, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the last of which she later helped victims of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake by raising emergency funds. She has promoted UNICEF's Breastfeeding Manifesto, [48] Growing Up Alone [49] and End Child Exploitation campaigns in the UK. [50] [51]
In 2003, she visited Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza to promote the charity Hope and Optimism for Palestinians in the Next Generation (HOPING). [52]
She also supports the Soil Association [53] and the HOPING foundation for Palestinian refugee children. [54]
In addition to her charitable work, Goldsmith campaigns for various social and political causes. She has campaigned against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as for freedom of information; she attended Assange's extradition hearings and gave a speech at the Stop the War Coalition's rally in defence of Wikileaks alongside Tony Benn and Tariq Ali. Along with John Pilger and Ken Loach, she was part of the six-member group in Westminster Magistrates Court willing to post bail for Julian Assange when he was arrested in London on 7 December 2010. However, she later changed her mind about Assange, questioning his unwillingness to answer the sexual misconduct allegations which led to his arrest and what she described as his demand for "cultish devotion" from his supporters. [55] [56]
In 2014, she publicly backed the Hacked Off campaign group which advocates reform of British press regulation. [57] [58] [59] In August 2014, she was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue. [60]
On 3 November 2018, Goldsmith criticised the fact that the Government of Pakistan was considering putting the Christian woman, Asia Bibi, on the exit control list despite the fact that she was acquitted by the Supreme Court, in order to compromise with the Islamist political party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan. [61]
In 1995, Goldsmith married Imran Khan, a retired cricketer who later served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022, [62] with whom she had two sons. [63] The couple divorced in 2004. [64]
Goldsmith was a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales, who visited her in Lahore in 1996. [65]
On 29 December 2000, Goldsmith and her family were on a British Airways jet to Kenya which was temporarily knocked off course and dived thousands of feet after a mentally ill passenger tried to seize controls in the cockpit. [66]
In 2002, she was listed at number 18 with £20 million on the Evening Standard's young millionaires list. [67]
Following her divorce in 2004, she returned to London and later became involved in a romantic relationship with actor Hugh Grant. Her relationship was scrutinised extensively by the tabloid media. [68] In February 2007, Grant announced that the couple had "decided to split amicably". [69] Grant's spokesman added that he "has nothing but positive things to say about Jemima." [69]
In September 2013, The Daily Telegraph reported that she was dating British comedian and actor Russell Brand. [70] In September 2014, she and Brand separated. [71] [72]
On 16 May 1995, Goldsmith and Imran Khan were married in a Nikah ceremony in Paris. [73] They also had a civil ceremony on 21 June 1995 at the Richmond Register Office, [74] followed by a midsummer ball at Ormeley Lodge. [75] A few months before her wedding, she converted to Islam, she also changed her name to Haiqa [76] [9] citing the writings of Muhammad Asad, Charles le Gai Eaton and Alija Izetbegović as her influences. [76] After her marriage to Khan, she relocated to his hometown, Lahore, Pakistan, where she learned to speak Urdu and also wore traditional Pakistani clothes.
She wrote in a 2008 article for The Times that she "over-conformed in [her] eagerness to be accepted" into the "new and radically different culture" of Pakistan. [77] Goldsmith stated that prior to her conversion to Islam she was technically Anglican but "was made familiar with Jewish traditions", since her paternal grandfather Frank Goldsmith was German Jewish. [78] During her marriage, her Jewish heritage was used by Khan's political opponents to question their credibility in Pakistani politics, especially concerning accusations that they supported the so-called Jewish lobby. [79] [80]
Goldsmith has two sons from her marriage to Khan: Sulaiman Isa (born 1996) and Kasim (born 1999). [8]
In 1999, she was charged in Pakistan with illegally exporting Islamic era antique tiles. She said that the charge was a fabrication to harass and damage her husband, [81] but nevertheless left Pakistan to stay with her mother for fear of incarceration. [82] After General Pervez Musharraf overthrew elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a coup d'état in 1999, the Ministry of Culture and Archaeology verified the tiles were not antiques, and the court dropped the charges, allowing her to return to Lahore. [81]
Goldsmith supported her husband as he became more involved in his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
On 22 June 2004, it was announced that the couple had divorced, ending the nine-year marriage, because it was "difficult for Jemima to adapt to the political life of Imran Khan in Pakistan". [83] The marriage ended amicably. Khan has said the six months leading to the divorce and the six months after were the hardest year of his life.[ citation needed ] After the divorce, Goldsmith returned to Britain with their two sons. According to the divorce settlement, Khan's boys visit him in Pakistan during their school holidays and, when he comes to London to see them, he stays with his former mother-in-law, Lady Annabel Goldsmith. According to Jemima Goldsmith, she and Khan remain on good terms. [80] [83]
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi is a Pakistani politician and former cricketer who served as the 22nd prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022. He is the founder and former chairman of the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from 1996 to 2023. He was the captain of the Pakistan national cricket team throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
Lady Annabel Goldsmith is an English socialite and the eponym for a London nightclub of the late 20th century, Annabel's. She was first married for two decades to entrepreneur Mark Birley, the creator of Annabel's. Annabel's was her husband's inaugural members-only Mayfair club.
Frank Zacharias Robin Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith of Richmond Park, is a British politician, life peer and journalist who served as Minister of State for Overseas Territories, Commonwealth, Energy, Climate and Environment from September 2022 to June 2023. A member of the Conservative Party, he was its candidate at the 2016 London mayoral election and was Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond Park from 2010 to 2016 and 2017 to 2019. Ideologically characterised as having liberal and libertarian views, he is known for his support for environmentalism and localism.
Benjamin James Goldsmith is an English financier and environmentalist. The son of financier James Goldsmith and Lady Annabel Goldsmith he is founder and CEO of London-listed investment firm Menhaden, which focuses on the theme of energy and resource efficiency.
Mark Roland Shand was a British travel writer and conservationist, as well as the brother of Queen Camilla. Shand was the author of four travel books and as a BBC conservationist, appeared in documentaries related to his journeys, most of which centered on the survival of elephants. His book Travels on My Elephant became a bestseller and won the Travel Writer of the Year Award at the British Book Awards in 1992. He was the chairman of Elephant Family, a wildlife foundation, which he co-founded in 2002.
Robin Marcus Birley is an English businessman, entrepreneur and political donor. He is the son of Lady Annabel Goldsmith and the nightclub owner Mark Birley. He had a brother, Rupert, who disappeared and is presumed deceased, and a sister, India Jane Birley. His half-brother is the former MP, now peer, Zac Goldsmith.
Marcus Oswald Hornby Lecky Birley, known as Mark Birley, was a British entrepreneur known for his investments in the hospitality industry.
India Jane Birley is a British artist and businesswoman. Her father, Mark Birley, opened the private member's club Annabel's, named after her mother, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, in the early 1960s and Birley ran the club with her brother, Robin Birley, during her father's ill health in the 2000s. She later became estranged from her brother, and her father's estate was left to her to be placed in trust for her son.
Hasnat Ahmed Khan is a British-Pakistani heart and lung surgeon. He is widely known for his romantic relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales, from 1995 to 1997.
Ormeley Lodge is a Grade II* listed early 18th-century Georgian house, set in 6 acres (2 ha) on the edge of Ham Common, near to Richmond Park in Ham, London. It is owned by Lady Annabel Goldsmith.
Annabel Mary Dibdin Heseltine is a journalist, columnist and TV and radio broadcaster. She is editor of the education magazine School House.
Assange v Swedish Prosecution Authority were the set of legal proceedings in the United Kingdom concerning the requested extradition of Julian Assange to Sweden for a "preliminary investigation" into accusations of sexual offences allegedly made in August 2010. Assange left Sweden for the UK in 27 September 2010 and a warrant for his arrest was issued in his absence the same day. He was suspected of rape of a lesser degree, unlawful coercion and multiple cases of sexual molestation. In June 2012, Assange breached bail and sought refuge at Ecuador's Embassy in London and was granted asylum.
Pakistan: A Personal History is a 2011 book written by Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan and former cricketer. In the book, Khan details Pakistan's history; his political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf; and his own life and cricket career.
The family of Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan and former captain of the Pakistan cricket team, is a prominent Pakistani family active in politics and sports. It was formerly the First Family of Pakistan. Imran Khan was born on 5 October 1952 in Lahore to father Ikramullah Khan Niazi, a civil engineer, and mother Shaukat Khanum. He grew up as the only son in the family, with four sisters. Paternally, Khan belongs to the Niazi Pashtun tribe which has long been settled in Mianwali in northwestern Punjab. Khan's mother hailed from the Burki Pashtun tribe settled in Jalandhar, Punjab, which emigrated a few centuries ago from South Waziristan in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan. Khan's maternal family has produced several great cricketers, the most prominent of whom are Jahangir Khan, Javed Burki and Majid Khan.
The Goldschmidt family is a family of German Jewish descent, originally from Frankfurt am Main, known for their success in banking and finance.
Reham Nayyar Khan is a British-Pakistani journalist, author, and filmmaker from Baffa, Pakistan. She is a former wife of Imran Khan, who later became Prime Minister of Pakistan in 2018, The publication of her memoir shortly before the 2018 Pakistani general election led to claims that its publication was intended to damage Imran Khan's electoral prospects. Khan married Mirza Bilal on 23 December 2022.
Gareth Peirce is a British solicitor and human rights activist. She has worked on a number of high-profile cases involving allegations of human rights injustices. Her work with Gerry Conlon and the Guildford Four – wrongly convicted of bombings carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army – was chronicled in the film In the Name of the Father (1993), in which she was portrayed by Emma Thompson.
Well, I have Pakistani citizenship and I have British citizenship, so I'm a dual national. I still have my roots in England, but I feel quite tied to Pakistan. I live here, my children go to school here. My life is in Pakistan now.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Jemima Goldsmith, former wife of Prime Minister Imran Khan, has said that Pakistan's government caved in to extremist demands to bar Asia Bibi from leaving the country. Jemima took to Twitter saying, "Not the Naya Pakistan we'd hoped for. 3 days after a defiant & brave speech defending the judiciary, Pakistan's gov caves in to extremist demands to bar #AsiaBibi from leaving Pak, after she was acquitted of blasphemy- effectively signing her death warrant."